George Kushi Niwesa promises phenomenal transformation in Demsa – Adamawa State

The essence of creating the third tier of government is to ensure that government and governance are brought closer to the people. This makes it easier for issues in a particular area to be best attended by government, in addition to getting the opportunity for making decisions in solving problems for the locals. 

This and more forms the background upon which those who have the feelings for the people and capable to deliver dividends of democracy are sought after.

Demsa Local Government Area is one of the 21 LGAs in Adamawa State Nigeria, which is situated in the town of Demsa, consisting of Gwamba, Nasarawa Demsa, Bille, Dilli, Dong, Dwam, Kpasham, Mbula Kuli, Bali, Borrong, Barinkin Jatau, Bomni, Bujin Kona, Dakkli, Dem, Donwa, Guri, Kpankpai, and Kpasham districts.

As the Local Government election draws near in Adamawa state, many interested individuals are jostling to win and occupy the Council Chairmanship position of Demsa. 


Of all the contenders for the office of the Council Chairman of Demsa LGA, Spark George Kushi Niwesa is standing shoulder high above all.
Spark, an Economist and graduate of the Adamawa State University? Mubi, is a grassroots youth who has endeared himself to the locals through his philanthropy and service rendering. 
Spark Kushi Niwesa, a perfect gentleman is a former National Coordinator, National Youth Movement of Nigeria, who during his reign in office, championed youth active but civil participation in politics.

In a recent chat with newsmen after collecting his nomination form, he promised to use his wealth of experience in various spheres of his life to better the lots of the people of the local government if elected to serve them. 

While soliciting for the people’s mandate, he assured that with him as the council boss, Demsa LGA is set for a phenomenal transformation.
He is vying for nomination on the platform of People’s Democratic Party, PDP.

Omowole Sowore – an activist, a revolutionist or an inglorious hooligan?

Revolution breeds anarchy. Political activism becomes hooliganism when they are engineered by unscrupulous political vandals with ulterior motives.

So when the owner of the Sahara Reporters Mr. Omowole Sowore was arrested by security agents for his planned violent protests against the Nigerian government, some activists went on the air to preach the civil liberty gospel. The major argument was that arresting this activist in a protest that has not occurred is undemocratic because no laws have been broken. That makes sense, but utterly nonsensical in practical terms.


By Anthony Obi Ogbo


The basic way to manage domestic terrorism is to wrestle the symptoms and mitigate them. Leaders who fail to follow this rule are often caught up with horrendous incidents where they would end up counting dead bodies.  As I write, the United States of America are reeling from yet more gruesome sights of violence and death when in less than 13 hours and nearly 1,600 miles apart, two mass shootings left at least 29 dead and 53 injured.

SOWORE (right). In some of the videos he posted in the social media, he incited young folks to joining his cause – suggesting unrestricted resistance and possible showdown. Such proposals would definitely leave any law enforcement with several options to mitigate chaos as well as investigate possible violations. 
 

Sowore’s arrest triggered a long thread of disagreement in the social media about the empirical meaning of the term “revolution.” Some defended Sowore’s proposed revolution as a mere protest because there were no violent undertones, whereas others suggested that his call might bring violence and anarchy. In fact, some compared the current administration with the previous regime of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan – arguing that the latter offered unprecedented freedom to his opposition. But democracy does not work like that.  If indeed the former President Jonathan failed to prosecute vandals who threatened his regime with violent revolution that might not be democratic but a clueless display of idiocy.

In political governance, the severity of a call for a revolution would depend on the actors, their conduct, and political environment.  But for Nigeria, a nation which has endured a horrific civil war, multiple coups, and several destructive and violent protests, a call for a revolution by a controversial group or individual might not just be overlooked by any meaningful law enforcement.

There is no doubt that the word “Revolution” is broad and lacks unambiguous meaning in basic definition. Also, most scholars would agree that the universal objective of any revolution would be to facilitate a transformation from an existing state to a higher level of system success – which may or may not be violent. However, in political governance, the severity of a call for a revolution would depend on the actors, their conduct, and political environment.  But for Nigeria, a nation which has endured a horrific civil war, multiple coups, and several destructive and violent protests, a call for a revolution by a controversial group or individual might not just be overlooked by any meaningful law enforcement.

Sowore’s latest case is basically a misleading political venture. From all indications, he wanted to be arrested so as to build a political base from a socially vulnerable populace who would see him as a hero. He was the Presidential Candidate for the African Action Congress (AAC), a party he founded. However, he failed terribly in the election. 

His political career crumbled soon after the election, when in July, a Federal High Court in Abuja validated his suspension in his own party. He was suspended February 23, for allegedly engaging in anti-party activities. This was when Sowore switched his title to “comrade.”

His political career crumbled soon after the election, when in July, a Federal High Court in Abuja validated his suspension in his own party. He was suspended February 23, for allegedly engaging in anti-party activities. This was when Sowore switched his title to “comrade.” He quickly consulted prominent activists opposed to the regime to market his project. He used his social media platform to share videos advocating a violent revolution in a proposed nationwide protest scheduled for August 5, 2019.” In his own words, Sowore vowed, “This is just a rehearsal of what is going to be the biggest revolution in this country”, claiming that some “big wings” in the opposition parties especially the PDP had already accepted it as a new face in the country.

Sowore’s latest case is basically a political venture. From all indications, he wanted to be arrested so as to build a political base from a socially vulnerable populace who would seem him as a hero. He was the Presidential Candidate for the African Action Congress (AAC), a party he founded. However, he failed terribly in the election.

Based on Sowores proposals, we may not need to recite any laws to assess his objectives. He is a self-acclaimed revolutionist who wants to lead a violent rebellion against his government. In some of the videos he posted in the social media, he incited young folks to joining his cause – suggesting unrestricted resistance and possible showdown. Such proposals would definitely leave any law enforcement with several options to mitigate chaos as well as investigate possible violations. 

Just a little background – Sowore  is not a new name in current Nigeria’s leadership crisis. He is not a part of the current government, but the role he played during the electioneering season that elected the incumbent leaves him without further introduction in the Nigeria’s political history.  He operated the Sahara Reporters, an internet controversial news blog which he started and operated at the time in his Manhattan’s studio apartment.

He untruthfully claimed that Sahara Reporters was set up to fight corruption and wrong government practices – thus received undisclosed grants from both the Ford Foundation and Omidyar Foundation. Contrary to these objectives,  Sowore was accused of using this platform as a bargaining tool to court unscrupulous politicians whom he collaborated with to blackmail the previous regime headed by Dr.  Jonathan.

He untruthfully claimed that Sahara Reporters was set up to fight corruption and wrong government practices – thus received undisclosed grants from both the Ford Foundation and Omidyar Foundation. Contrary to these objectives,  Sowore was accused of using this platform as a bargaining tool to court unscrupulous politicians whom he collaborated with to blackmail the previous regime headed by Dr.  Jonathan.

For instance, the regime accused Sowore of  receiving a $5m mansion-gift from the major opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). The regime claimed Sowore is being bribed to use his online news platform to “mislead and hoodwink gullible and highly brainwashed Nigerians through highly biased, junk, sensational and sectional journalism.” But Sowore denied the allegations, describing President Goodluck Jonathan as a “cheap blackmailer and liar’. In fact, Sahara Reporters at the time published an unsubstantiated poll which showed that Dr. Jonathan “would be defeated by 75% if pitched against Buhari”  in the 2015 general election.

But besides the aforementioned trade of accusations and counter-accusations, Sowore’s collaboration with the APC in pulling down the incumbent at the time to elect this current regime remains as clear as spring water. He supported unequivocally, all fabricated campaign propaganda orchestrated by the opposition and promoted editorial columns and video blogs tailored to frantically destroy the structure of Nigeria’s politics in order to pave way for his opposition collaborators.

So the issue is how such a character could turn around and become a “Comrade” overnight  in the same democratic structure he painstakingly destroyed. Do not get this wrong.  Sowore has the right to agitate his grievances with the regime or their policies. In a democracy, the statutory functions of civil liberty is not negotiable. The regime cannot authoritatively interfere with the citizens’ rights to peacefully assembly, protest, speak out, or advocate a redress of policies. But it must also be noted that in constitutional democracy where written laws direct all functions of the government, a call for a revolution could be treasonable, especially where it is perceived to obstruct national security or public safety.

A protest or call for revolution loses the civil liberty protection where actors and actions or proposed engagements undermine the laws of the land. Furthermore, whereas freedom to protest is unequivocally legitimate, inflammatory communication systematized by actors loaded with ulterior motives to invoke ferocious actions might be subversive and felonious.

♦ Anthony Ogbo, PhD, Adjunct Professor at the Texas Southern University is the author of the Influence of Leadership (2015)  and the Maxims of Political Leadership (2019). Contact: anthony@guardiannews.us

Money row sparks deadly Nigeria jihadist infighting: sources

Money row sparks deadly Nigeria jihadist infighting: sources

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) – A dispute over money within a Nigerian jihadist faction affiliated to the Islamic State group has spiralled into clashes that has killed “scores” of fighters, sources said.

The infighting — which erupted into gun battles on July 26 — has exposed divisions inside the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, three sources with deep knowledge of the faction’s internal workings told AFP.

The disagreement centred on sharing income mainly generated by taxing cattle herders and fishermen in areas the jihadists control around Lake Chad, said the sources, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

The fighting broke out in the village of Blantougou in Niger before spilling over the border into Nigeria.

It pitted those loyal to tax chief Umar Leni against two other factions, the sources said.

“There was heavy fighting between the three factions which left scores from all sides killed,” one of the sources said.

“They could not agree on a sharing formula after six days of disagreement and resorted to fighting,” he said.

Leni escaped the fighting unscathed and was believed to have fled to Mali with the group’s stash, according to the sources.

The infighting is just the latest to hit the factious jihadist insurgency that has torn apart northeastern Nigeria and crossed into neighbouring countries over the past decade.

ISWAP broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 in part due to its rejection of indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

Last year the group witnessed a reported takeover by more hardline fighters who sidelined its leader and executed his deputy.

The IS-affiliate has since July 2018 ratcheted up a campaign of attacks against military targets.

Military sources told AFP that 25 soldiers from an international force and at least 40 jihadists were killed in fighting Monday near the town of Baga on Lake Chad.

A military source in the region told AFP they were “closely monitoring” the reported clashes within the jihadist group.

ISWAP has sought to fill the void left by the collapse of government authority in the areas it controls by offering basic medical service and providing security, sources and analysts say.

It imposes taxes on cattle herders and charges fishermen for permission to access Lake Chad, sources said.

In 2017 the Nigerian military banned fishing in Lake Chad which it said was being used by jihadists as a source of funding — but fishermen have continued to smuggle their catch to local markets.

Sources said the jihadists are looking to raise cash to buy ammunition for heavy weaponry looted from the Nigerian army.

The group also has a record of raising money from kidnappings. Last month it abducted six Nigerian aid workers.

Obama Foundation Announces Wally Adeyemo as President

Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals.

CHICAGO — Today, the Obama Foundation announced that former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo will join the organization as its first-ever President.

In this role, Adeyemo will work closely with current Foundation leadership, including Board Chairman Martin Nesbitt and CEO David Simas. Adeyemo will manage the Foundation’s day-to-day operations, helping to implement the organization’s overall strategic goals and vision. Over the last several years, the Obama Foundation has grown from a staff of a dozen to nearly 200 and launched a number of programs to support the next generation of leaders making positive change in their communities.

“Wally is the ideal person to help lead the Foundation team as we continue to grow the impact of our global civic engagement programs and advance the Obama Presidential Center,” said Nesbitt. “Given his executive experience in both the public and private sectors and previous service with President Obama, Wally is well positioned to help us continue to translate our sky-high ambitions into operational reality through daily leadership of our talented staff.”

Adeyemo is joining the Foundation as it advances its work to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and grows its civic engagement programming. Since 2017, the Foundation has launched a series of programs that support leaders around the United States and the world who work to create positive change in their communities, including the Obama Foundation Fellows, Leaders, Scholars, and Community Leadership Corps, as well as the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and Girls Opportunity Alliance initiatives.

The Foundation recently convened 200 rising Leaders in South Africa to discuss grassroots change across the continent. And in August hundreds of young leaders in Chicago and Hartford, Connecticut, will gather to learn tangible skills for engaging and problem-solving with their local communities as part of the Community Leadership Corps. The Foundation is now in its third year of civic engagement programming and expects to expand globally later in 2019 and 2020.

“I am thrilled Wally is joining the Foundation and look forward to working hand in hand with him to execute our mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world,” said Simas. “Wally has led diverse teams at the highest levels of government, and the Foundation will benefit from his perspective and experience standing up new organizations.”

Adeyemo was appointed in 2015 as President Obama’s senior international economics adviser, responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also has held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff. He also helped launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011 as its first Chief of Staff. He is currently a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Adeyemo serves on the board of a number of organizations devoted to community empowerment and addressing inequality, including the Golden State Opportunity Foundation and Demos. His full bio can be found below.

Adeyemo’s work will span responsibilities such as:

  • Leading the implementation and execution of the Foundation’s strategic plan;
  • Ensuring the Foundation’s organizational structures and policies are aligned to support its goals and vision as it grows and continues to implement its second full year of programming; and
  • Managing and supporting all major Foundation functions and teams.

“I am excited to be joining in the work of the Obama Foundation — inspiring, empowering, and connecting young leaders focused on changing the world,” said Adeyemo. “I look forward to working with the talented staff of the Foundation to build an organization devoted to supporting the work of changemakers — whether in Chicago or around the world.”

Wally Adeyemo
Wally Adeyemo is a senior advisor at BlackRock and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has spent the majority of his career convening companies, governments, and organizations to move together toward achieving common goals. As Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, he served as President Barack Obama’s senior international economic adviser and was responsible for coordinating the policymaking process related to international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues. Adeyemo also served as the President’s representative to the G7 and G20 and held several senior management positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, as well as chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s provisions on macroeconomic policy.

In addition to his work on macro-economic policy, Adeyemo also served as the first chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that capacity, he helped to build the bureau’s initial executive leadership team and served as a member of the CFPB Executive Committee, helping to protect American consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive consumer financial practices.

Adeyemo is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, which promotes widespread economic opportunity and the competitiveness of America. He also serves on the boards of Demos, a New York-based think tank focused on social, political and economic equity issues, as well as on the Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which works to provide financial security to low-income working people throughout California; and Just Homes, a faith-based affordable housing initiative based in Washington, DC.

He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Social media dialogue highlights the devastating effects of corporal punishment in the Nigerian school system

It started with a Facebook discussion forum and metamorphosed into a much more serious issue – the dire effects of bodily punishment in the Nigeria’s education sector. 


By Anthony Obi Ogbo

After watching a video of how the Russian President Vladimir Putin veered from a Victory Day Parade protocol in Moscow to embrace his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, a Nigerian social media commentator, Doris Chii Nwike, recanted her own school experience with teachers. This was not a joke.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop to hug my maths teacher, Mrs. Okigbo and my Religious knowledge teacher Sister Rose – a Catholic Nun,” Doris wrote.  She continued. “Mrs. Okigbo flogged me mercilessly because I couldn’t make head or tail of what she teaches in mathematics, not only me but almost everyone. We take math lessons in fear! Sister Rose wields her cane with relish all the time; she relished pleasure in the canes and flogging. There is no pity in her dictionary, that is why till today, I find it hard putting any of my kids in a school being run by reverend sisters.”

But Doris was not done. In her narrative, not all her teachers were brutal. There was one teacher that she would hug any day. According to Doris, “When we would be assembling in the staff room to be punished, it is only Mrs. Florence Onyema Obiechina that would look at this lanky fair-skinned girl with a red birthmark on her left arm, and would motion me to kneel by her side to prevent Sister Rose from flogging me and my skin turning red. She will be the one I’ll give my hug and some of my other kind-hearted teachers.”

Doris Chii Nwike (left),  Mrs. Florence Onyema Obiechina… Doris’s experience highlights the disturbing effects of corporal punishment in the Nigerian school system

Doris’s account thus generated a long discussion thread of forum participants, mainly from Nigeria, narrating their own experience. Interestingly, Mrs. Obiechina joined the discussion thread to explain the secrets behind her successful classroom instructional strategies. According to Mrs. Obiechina, “I strongly believe that students can perform excellently well without being flogged. Flogging scares students and makes them hate the subject. A teacher who wants her students to perform well must have a good knowledge of the subject, lay a good foundation for the students and make serious efforts to instill knowledge into the students using instructional materials while ensuring active participation of the students in the class.”

In further explanation of what might contradict the traditional corporal punishment approach, Mrs. Obiechina, an alumni of the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada stated, “I taught with no cane and it worked perfectly for me since my students perform excellently well in all schools I was opportune to serve. Whenever I meet my students, they always show great appreciation.”

In Nigeria’s school system, corporal punishment remains a disturbing classroom supervision tool. Children are beaten, flogged, slapped, spanked, punched, or even kicked for violating common rules. They are hit with objects, ordered to kneel down  under severe weather for extended time periods, and in the other circumstances, restrained not only by teachers but also by elder pupils authorized to supervise newer ones.

In Nigeria’s school system, corporal punishment remains a disturbing classroom supervision tool. Children are beaten, flogged, slapped, spanked, punched, or even kicked for violating common rules. They are hit with objects, ordered to kneel down under severe weather for extended time periods, and in the other circumstances, restrained not only by teachers but also by older pupils authorized to supervise newer ones.

“I strongly believe that students can perform excellently well without being flogged. Flogging scares students and makes them hate the subject. A teacher who wants her students to perform well must have a good knowledge of the subject, lay a good foundation for the students and make serious efforts to instill knowledge into the students using instructional materials while ensuring active participation of the students in the class.”

Florence Onyema Obiechina

Last year, for instance, students were being tied to makeshift crucifixes and flogged with horsewhips for coming late to school. This happened in a private school in Abeokuta, Ogun State south-west Nigeria. After a public uproar, the police arrested three people, including a school principal suspected to be involved in the incident for questioning. 

In Nasarawa State,  a video of ruthless beating of some students of Government Science Secondary School Nasarawa-Eggon went viral on the social media, prompting the Commissioner for Education, Ahmed Tijani to ban corporal punishment in public schools in the state. He went further to announce that the State had established a committee to investigate this incident. His Ministry also issued a memo to all public schools informing the management of the various schools on the ban on corporal punishment.

Without the doubt, managing school children is not an easy task.  The challenge entails supervising a set of different individuals from different social and economic backgrounds; managing their conduct and conception levels; Creating a conducive learning environment to inspire their hope, improve learning, and reinforce their academic guidelines and required standards. Corporal punishment does not fit the aforementioned values. 

If nothing else, Doris’s account highlights one of the devastating effects of corporal punishment – a gap in the relationship between the teacher and student. Her closeness with her favorite teacher, Mrs.   Obiechina was based on her transformational teaching strategies – a teacher-student approach that prioritizes cultivation of knowledge as a foundation for success. This approach replicates a study by Clayton et al., which underscores how the foundational aspect of a positive school experience is reliant on positive impact of a strong teacher–student relationship.

Students cannot learn under excruciating circumstances of fear and tyranny perpetrated by instructors who they see as Killer-Dinosaurs. Thus, building relationships remain the most effective classroom management technique. This approach instills confidence, love, and knowledge in the learning system. It creates an encouraging environment where rules are hardly broken because students are more focused on academic accomplishments.  

This article does not advocate a disregard of lawlessness in the classrooms. Rather, it emphasizes a learning environment immune from torture and bullying. The setting must instill love, trust, hope, and aspiration. Good teachers are explicit about their expectations regarding classroom behavior. They often explain the rules and applied them in a non-brutal, fair-minded, and consistent manner.  The classroom should be a family not a torturing camp. 

♦ Anthony Ogbo, PhD, Adjunct Professor at the Texas Southern University is the author of the Influence of Leadership (2015)  and the Maxims of Political Leadership (2019). Contact: anthony@guardiannews.us

Pitiless ICE Agents run amok in brutal deportation showdown

  • Nigerian immigrant moaned and cried as he was restrained in a home-bound flight.

  • Brutal take-down of a Somali immigrant while his wife watched and cried.”

  • ICE busts car window to arrest undocumented immigrant

  • Immigrant father arrested by ICE outside Austin child custody hearing

International Guardian, Houston TX – Ongoing raids by the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is getting excessively brutal. Images and videos of ruthless apprehension and arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants are circulating all over the social media, leaving the world with a clear impression of what America currently looks like.

On July 12, President Donald Trump announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would begin raids that would target roughly 2,000 immigrants at specific areas. This raid was billed for Sunday, July 14. On July 15, Trump boasted that the operation had been “very successful,” adding that “many, many were taken out.”

But this raid was not just a weekend affair. ICE Agents had since beefed up their deportation process in the most cold-blooded manner; tearing families, bursting into homes, smashing car windows, and brutally tackling suspects on the streets.

In a one of the videos that is being shared worldwide, a Nigerian man moaned and cried as he was restrained in an airplane. He cried and struggled with ICE agents. Another video witnessed a street brutal apprehension of a suspected undocumented immigrant, with an inscription: “American government trying to arrest a Somali immigrant but succeeded in killing him before his wife.”

In another incident captured in a widely viewed video, a man was arrested by ICE in Kansas City and deported right away to Mexico. The arrest, captured in a widely viewed video taken by his girlfriend. The video drew attention from activists and elected officials who questioned the actions of the ICE agents and the involvement of local Kansas City police.

There were other videos that left observer shocked about ICEs’ latest showdown. For instance, two days ago, ICE busted a car window to arrest an undocumented immigrant, Florencio Millan-Vazquez who refused to leave the car without seeing an arrest warrant. He was deported to Mexico on July 24.

The process got worse when ICE agents arrested an undocumented immigrant-father outside an Austin child custody hearing. In Tennessee however, the story lines read differently as neighborhood residents in Hermitage formed a ‘human chain’ around man after ICE tried to arrest him.

Furthermore, on Thursday, the National Public Radio reported how Francisco Erwin Galicia, a U.S. citizen, was picked up by Border Patrol officers, processed into detention and held for 26 days. “It nearly broke him,” Galicia’s lawyer, Claudia Galan told NPR. “He said the conditions were horrible, and inhumane. And he was about to sign a deportation order … even though he was born here.”

Galicia, 18, was in a van with his brother Marlon and three other high school friends on June 27. They were on their way to Houston for a recruitment event when they were stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas — about 50 miles from home and within the corridor of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector.

These raids could only get worse. For instance, a sweeping expansion of deportation powers unveiled this week by the Trump administration is expected to intensify the ongoing ICE takedown. To make it worse, uncertainty about how the policy might play out has created confusion and made it harder to give clear guidance to immigrants. The new rules will allow immigration officers nationwide to deport anyone who has been here illegally for less than two years. Currently, authorities can only exercise such powers within 100 miles (161 kilometers) of the border and only target people who have been here less than two weeks.

Nigeria at Risk of Losing $15 Billion of Crisis-Era Bad Loans

Nigeria is facing the risk of never recovering about 5.5 trillion naira ($15 billion) of bad loans taken over during a banking crisis more than a decade ago.

The money is almost 80% of the West African nation’s revenue target for 2019 and 62% of planned spending by President Muhammadu Buhari, amounting to 8.9 trillion naira.

That is how much the state-owned Asset Management Corp., or Amcon, still has to collect from Nigerian companies that have failed to repay the debts they once owed lenders, Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Kuru said at a conference in Lagos on Wednesday. Delays in litigation are slowing the process, while tepid economic growth is weighing on the ability of businesses to survive, he said.

Modeled on organizations including Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency Ltd. and Korea Asset Management Corp., Amcon used bonds to bail out 10 lenders and buy more than 12,000 loans from industries including aviation, gasoline marketing and manufacturing after the 2008-09 oil price crash. It’s so far recovered 1 trillion naira, Kuru said.

Amcon needs to recover the outstanding debts to enable it to meet its obligations to the Central Bank of Nigeria, which provided the cash it used to repay holders of bonds that were issued to acquire the loans, he said.

The CEO said extending the operations of Amcon beyond its 2023 deadline would do more harm than good, because that could encourage bad behavior in the financial industry and among borrowers.

“The federal government should be appropriating the money yearly” required to meet its obligations should the bad debts not be recovered, Kuru said.

The money is almost 80% of the West African nation’s revenue target for 2019 and 62% of planned spending by President Muhammadu Buhari (pictured), amounting to 8.9 trillion naira.

Amcon plans to appoint advisers this year for the sale of Polaris Bank, a lender it took over last year after it breached central bank’s capital and liquidity thresholds, the CEO said. Amcon recapitalized Polaris Bank with 786 billion naira and has no plans to rescue other lenders, he said.

Fall of moral standards – fighting corruption must start from the school curriculum

A society is measured by the quality of undergraduates it produces and the moral character of those entering the work force. This is why they are considered the future leaders, and this is why they are believed to be the foundation of societal political and economic success. Unfortunately, in today’s Nigeria, Bachelor degree holders are the kingpins of corruption on the internet.  Some of these young men and women are so sophisticated and advanced in the internet fraud that the western world has to invent new technology to keep up with their crime wave



By Dominic (Big D) Ikeogu

One wonders why these young men and women would choose such lifestyle after their education career.  Does this means that they did not receive any lessons on ethics while in school?  Or do we just blame this on the quality of education they receive?

When I was in school, my lessons on values were very constructive.  I was thought upon graduation, to go out in the society and use my knowledge to make the world better. Other valuable lessons were:

  • Fighting for those who do not have the opportunity I had, and becoming their voice and hope
  • Fighting for injustice wherever they exist, and treating those under me with respect and dignity
  • Desisting from using my education to oppress others, and remaining fair to my enemies
  • Remain environmentally conscious, and making the earth a little be better than I find it
  • Remain conscious that taking bribery is morally wrong and would defeat the purpose of my degree
  • And finally differentiating myself from others and becoming a shimmering example to them to emulate

As they said, education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave. However, this is not true in Nigeria. This country has one of the highest level of education standards, yet majority are still enslaved with the worst corruption known to mankind.

But this quote from Bishop kukah got me thinking too:

” Nigeria Educational system surprising outcomes: The smartest student passes with first class and get admitted to medical and engineering schools, the second class student get MBA’s and LLB’s to manage the first class students. The third class students enter politics and rule both the first class and second class students. The failures enter the underworld of crime and control the politicians and business. And the worst of all, those who did not attend school at all become prophets and imams and start teaching bigotry and hatred and everyone follows them. What a paradox of life. This can only happen in Nigeria where corruption is the life blood and order and a way of ordinary life in this part of the world “

I appreciate Bishop Kukah for intelligently analyzing the deep symptoms –  describing the country as it is and highlighting the structure of their failure.

Finally, I could offer my own thoughts regarding solutions to corruption in the Nigeria society. Of course, it is necessary that the government both the state, local, and the federal government must have in place comprehensive ethical guidelines to regulate every employee. This document must be endorsed by every employee as covenant for moral decency.  Furthermore:

  • Government at all levels, must adopt the teaching of ethics in the school curriculum
  • Training on ethics must also be embedded in the workforce system. This could be applied to both the public and private sector.  
  • Effective or rather applicable penalty for ethical violations must be legislated to deter culprits as well as punish offenders.  

If these measures are strictly enforced, Nigeria as you know it today would gradually become corrupting-free within a substantial amount of time.

 Thank you for reading this piece and give me your honest feedback

@ ikeogud@gamil.com or respond to my Facebook page, click >>>

God Bless You.

BIG D – Dominic Ikeogu

Obasanjo’s daughter to Obasanjo: “This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs”

Obasanjo and his daughter Iyabo (inset). Iyabo’s last words read: “This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs”

In multiple failed attempts to get the attention of the regime, the former president Olusegun Obasanjo finally released a letter on Monday addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, warning that  “Nigeria is on the precipice and dangerously reaching a tipping point where it may no longer be possible to hold danger at bay”.

Below is the full unedited version of Iyabo’s letter to the father she knew – the mother of all letters.  

But most Nigerians knew Obasanjo’s letter-writing strategy to incite tension in the populace anytime he has issues with the incumbent. This strategy was completely exposed in December 2013 by Obasanjo’s own daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, in a lengthy open letter accusing his dad of viciously and constantly disrupting the government. Iyabo’s last words read: “This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs”

December 16, 2013

Open Letter to My Father
By Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, PhD

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart”
Mencius, Chinese Philosopher of the 4th century

It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the records straight. I will return to the issue of my long-suffering mother later in this letter.
Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was surely surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise. I remember clearly as if it was yesterday the day I came over to Abuja from Abeokuta when I was Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, specifically to ask you not to continue to pursue the third term issue. I had tried to bring it up when your sycophantic aides were present and they brushed my comments aside and as usual you listened to their self-serving counsel. For you to accuse someone else of what you so obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac personality. Everyone around for even a few minutes knows that the only thing you respond to is praise and worship of you. People have learnt how to manipulate you by giving you what you crave. The only ones that can’t and will not stroke your ego are family members who you universally treat like shit apart from the few who have learned to manipulate you like others.
Before I continue, Nigerians are people who see conspiracy and self-service in everything because I think they believe everyone is like them. This letter is not in support of President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person, but an outpouring from my soul to God. I don’t blame you for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were your enablers every step of the way. People ultimately get leaders that reflect them. Getting back to the story, I made sure your aides were not around and brought up the issue, trying to deliver the presentation of the issue as I had practiced it in my head. I started with the fact that we copied the US constitution which has term limits of two terms for a President. As is your usual manner, you didn’t allow me to finish my thought process and listen to my point of view. Once I broached the subject you sat up and said that the US had no term limits in the past but that it had been introduced in the 1940s after the death of President Roosevelt, which is true. I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you also copy the modifications based on the
learning from the original; only a fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the knowledge of others before them. The American constitution itself is based on several theories and philosophies of governance available in the 18th century. Democracy itself is a governance method started by the ancient Greeks. America’s founding fathers used it with modifications based on what hadn’t worked well for the ancient Greeks and on new theories since then.
As usual in our conversations, I kept quiet because I know you well. You weren’t going to change your mind based on my intervention as you had already made up your mind on the persuasion of the minions working for you who were ripping the country blind. When I spoke to you, your outward attitude to the people of the country was that you were not interested in the third term and that it was others pushing it. Your statement to me that day proved to me that you were the brain behind the third term debacle. It is therefore outrageous that you accuse the current President of a similar two-facedness that you yourself used against the people of the country.
I was on a plane trip between Abuja and Lagos around the time of the third term issue and I sat next to one of your sycophants on the plane. He told me: “Only Obasanjo can rule Nigeria”. I replied: “God has not created a country where only one person can rule. If only one person can rule Nigeria then the whole Nigeria project is not a viable one, as it will be a non-sustainable project”. I don’t know how you came about Yar’Adua as the candidate for your party as it was not my priority or job. Unlike you, I focus on the issues I have been given responsibility over and not on the jobs of others. It was the day of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Abeokuta during the state-by-state tour of 2007 that Yar’Adua got sick and had to be flown abroad. The MKO Abiola Stadium was already filled with people by 9am when I drove by (and) we had told people based on the campaign schedule that the rally would start at noon.
At 11 am I headed for the stadium on foot; it was a short walk as there were so many cars already parked in and out. As I walked on with two other people, we saw crowds of people leaving the stadium. I recognized some of them as politicians and I asked them why people were leaving. They said the Presidential candidate had died. I was alarmed and shocked. I walked back home and received a call from a friend in Lagos who said the same and added that he had died in the plane carrying him abroad for treatment and that the plane was on its way to Katsina to bury him.
I called you, and told you the information and that the stadium was already half-empty. You told me to go to the stadium and tell the people on the podium to announce that the Presidential candidate had taken ill that morning but the rest of the team, including you and the Vice-Presidential candidate would arrive shortly. I did as I was told, but even the people on the podium at first didn’t make the announcement because they thought it was true that Yar’Adua had died. I had to take the microphone and make the announcement myself. It did little good. People kept trooping out of the stadium. Your team didn’t arrive until 4pm and by this time we had just a sprinkling of people left.
That evening after the disaster of a rally, you said you had insisted that the Presidential candidate fly to Germany for a check-up although you said he only had a cold. I asked why would anyone fly to Germany to treat a cold? And you said “I would rather die than have the man die at this time”. I thought of this profound statement as things later unfolded against me. Then I thought it a stupid statement but as usual I kept quiet, little did I know how your machinations for a person would be used against me. When Yar’Adua eventually died, you stayed alive, I would have expected you to jump into his grave.
I left Nigeria in 1989 right after youth service to study in the US and I visited in 1994 for a week and didn’t visit again until your inauguration in 1999. In between, you had been arrested by Abacha and jailed. We, your children, had no one who stood with us. Stella famously went around collecting money on your behalf but we had no one. We survived. I was the only one of the children working then as a post-doctoral fellow when I got the call from a friend informing me of your arrest.
A week before your arrest, you had called me from Denmark and I had told you that you should be careful that the government was very offended by some of your statements and actions and may be planning to arrest or kill you as was occurring to many at the time. The source of my information was my mother who, agitated, had called me, saying I should warn you as this was the rumour in the country. As usual you brushed aside my comments, shouting on the phone that they cannot try anything and you will do and say as you please. The consequence of your bravado is history.
We, your family, have borne the brunt of your direct cruelty and also suffered the consequences of your stupidity but got none of the benefits of your successes. Of course, anyone around you knows how little respect you have for your children.
You think our existence on earth is about you. By the way, how many are we? 19, 20, 21? Do you even know? In the last five years, how many of these children have you spoken to? How many grandchildren do you have and when did you last see each of them? As President you would listen to advice of people that never finished high school who would say anything to keep having access to you so as to make money over your children who loved you and genuinely wished you well.
At your first inauguration in 1999, I and my brothers and sisters told you we were coming from the US. As is usual with you, you made no arrangements for our trip, instead our mom organized to meet each of us and provided accommodation. At the actual swearing-in at Eagle Square, the others decided to watch it on TV. Instead I went to the square and I was pushed and tossed by the crowd.
I managed to get in front of the crowd where I waved and shouted at you as you and General Abdulsalam Abubakar walked past to go back to the VIP seating area. I saw you mouth ‘my daughter’ to General Abdullahi who was the one who pulled me out of the crowd and gave me a seat. As I looked around I saw Stella and Stella’s family prominently seated but none of your children. I am sure General Abdullahi would remember this incident and I am eternally grateful to him.
Getting back to my mother, I still remember your beating her up continually when we were kids. What kids can forget that kind of violence against their mother? Your maltreatment of women is legendary. Many of your women have come out to denounce you in public but since your madness is also part of the madness of the society, it is the women that are usually ignored and mistreated. Of course, you are the great pretender, making people believe you have a good family life and a good relationship with your children but once in a while your pretence gets cracked.
When Gbenga gave a ride to help someone he didn’t know but saw was in need and the person betrayed his trust by taping his candid response on the issues going on between you and your then vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, you had your aides go on air and denounce the boy before you even spoke to him to find out what happened. What kind of father does that? Your atrocities to some of my other siblings I will let them tell in their own due time or never if they choose.
Some of the details of our life are public but the people choose to ignore it and pretended we enjoyed some largesse when you were President.
This punishing the innocent is part of Nigeria’s continuing sins against God. While you were military head of state and lived in Dodan Barracks, we stayed either with our mum in the twobedroom apartment provided for her by General Murtala Mohammed or with your relatives, Bose, Yemisi and your sisters’ kids in the Boys Quarters of Dodan Barracks. At Queens College, I remember being too ashamed to tell my wealthy classmates from Queen’s College, Lagos we lived in the two room Boys Quarters or in the two room flat on Lawrence Street.
No, we did not have privileged upbringing but our mother emphasized education and that has been our salvation. Of my mother’s 6 children 4 have PhDs. Of the two without PhD, one has a Master’s and the other is an engineer. They are no slouches. Education provided a way to make our way in the world.
You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you. You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you. You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”. You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever. Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego. This your attitude is a reflection of the country. It is not certain which came first, your attitude seeping into the country’s psyche or the country accepting your irresponsible behavior for so long.
Like you and your minions, it’s a symbiotic relationship. Nigeria has descended into a hellish reality where smart, capable people to “survive” and have their daily bread prostrate to imbeciles. Everybody trying to pull everybody else down with greed and selfishness — the only traits that gets you anywhere. Money must be had and money and power is king. Even the supposed down-trodden agree with this.
Nigeria accused me of fraud with the Ministry of Health. As you yourself know, both in Abeokuta and Abuja I lived in your houses as a Senator. In Lagos, I stayed in my mum’s bungalow which she succeeded in getting from you when you abandoned her with six children to live in Abeokuta with Stella.
I borrowed against my four-year Senate salary to build the only house I have anywhere in the world in Lagos. I rent out the house for income. I don’t have much in terms of money but I am extremely happy. I tried to contribute my part to the development of my country but the country decided it didn’t need me. Like many educated Nigerians my age, there are countries that actually value people doing their best to contribute to society and as many of them have scattered all over the world so have many of your children.
I can speak for myself and many of them; what they are running away from is that they can’t even contribute effectively at the same time as they have to deal with constant threats to their lives by miscreants the society failed to educate; deal with lack of electricity and air pollution resulting from each household generating its own electricity, and the lack of quality healthcare or education and a total lack of sense of responsibility of almost every person you meet. Your contribution to this scenario cannot be overestimated.
You and your cronies mentioned in your letter have left the country worse than you met it at your births in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nigeria is not the creation of any of you, and although you feel you own it and are “Mr Nigeria” deciding whether the country stays together or not, and who rules it; you don’t. Nigeria is solely the creation of the British. My dear gone Grandmother whose burial you told people not to attend, was not born a Nigerian but a proud Ijebu-Yoruba woman. Togetherness is a choice and it must serve a purpose.
As for Nigerians thinking I have their money, when it was obvious I was part of the Yar’Adua (government’s) anti-Obasanjo phenomenon that was going on at the time. The Ministry of Health and international NGOs paid for a retreat for the Senate Committee on Health. The House Committee on Health was treated exactly the same way. The monies were given to members as estacode and the rest used for accommodation, flights and feeding. While the Senate was on the retreat in Ghana, the EFCC asked the House Committee to return the monies they received for their retreat and asked us in the Senate to return ours on our return which I refused, as it was already used for the purpose it was earmarked for in the budget that year which was to work on the National Health Bill.
The House Committee had not gone on their retreat. I did nothing wrong and my colleagues and I on the retreat did our work conscientiously. I asked the EFCC not to drag my colleagues into it and I am proud I suffered alone. As is usual in a society where people who are not progressive but take pleasure in the pain of others, most Nigerians were happy, not looking at the facts of the matter, just the suffering of an Obasanjo.
As the people that stole their millions are hailed by them the innocent is punished. When the court case was thrown out because it lacked merit even against the Minister, no newspaper carried the news. The wrongful malicious prosecution of an Obasanjo was not something they wanted to report; just her downfall. But it really wasn’t about me, it was about right and wrong in society and every society gets the fruit of the seeds it sows.
How do you think God will provide good leaders to such a people? God helps those who help themselves. I have realized that as an Obasanjo I am not entitled to work in Nigeria in any capacity. I am not entitled to work in health which is my training, or in any field or anywhere in the country or participate in any business. I have learnt this lesson well and there are societies that actually think capable, well-educated people are important to their society’s
progress. Apparently, unless I am eating from the dustbin, Nigerians and possibly you will not be satisfied. I thank God it has not come to that based on God-given brains and brawn.
When I left Nigeria in 1989 for graduate studies in America, you promised to pay my school fees and no living expenses. This you did and I am grateful for because, working in the kitchen and then the library at University of California, Davis and later, working on the IT desk and later as a Teaching Assistant at Cornell gave me valuable work ethics for life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. As a black woman in the early 21st century, I have achieved much and done more than most. My wish is that black girls all over the world will have the capacity to create their lives, make mistakes, learn from it and move ahead.
Moving back to Nigeria, thinking I wanted to serve was obviously a grave mistake but one brought about by the tragic incident of April 20, 2003. This was the day five people were shot dead in my car. The mother of the children was an acquaintance I had met only one day before the incident.
We had attended the same high school and university but she was there ten years earlier than I. She had also studied public health in the UK as I had in the US. It was these coincidences that made us connect on our first meeting and then she decided to visit on the Saturday of the election of 2003 when the incident occurred. I am scarred for life by that incident and I know the mother was too as we both looked back to see two men on each side of my car shooting.
I understand her trauma and her behaviour since then can be judged from that. Nigeria is a nasty place that pushes people to lose their compass. I participated in the campaigns leading to the elections that day, more because this was my first experience of electoral process in Nigeria. Growing up there were no elections and I was too young in the 1979 and 1983 elections. It was interesting to see democracy at work. When Gbenga Daniel who I campaigned for offered me a job, I probably would have declined it, if not for the memory of the dead.
I felt I had to engage in making the country progress and to avoid such incidences in the future. I don’t need to tell you or anyone what kind of governor and person Gbenga Daniel is. As usual when I found out, you would not listen to my opinion but found out for yourself. I also campaigned for Amosun for the Senate in 2003. I have had some wonderful Nigerians do good to me, I will never forget the then Minister of Women Affairs, who saw me talking in the crowd at a campaign event and was alarmed and said “bad things can happen to you out there, I will give you one of the orderlies assigned to my office to follow you”. This was the police man that died in my car that day. I never really thought bad things would happen to me, I moved around freely in society until that shooting scarred me and I accepted a police detail. I was constantly scared for my life after that.
You called me after your vengeful letter as usual, looking out for yourself and thinking you will bribe me by saying the APC will use me for the Senate. Do you really know me and what I want out of life?
Anyone that knows me knows I am done with anything political or otherwise in Nigeria. I have so much to do and think to make this world a better place than to waste it on fighting with idiots over a political post that does no good to society. That letter you wrote to the
President, would you have tolerated such a letter as a sitting President? Don’t do to others what you will not allow to be done to you. The only thing I was using that was yours was the house in Abuja where I left my things when I left the country. I eventually rented it out so that the place would not fall apart but as usual you want to take that as well. You can’t have it without explaining to Nigerians how you came about the house?
As I said earlier, this is not about politics but my frustration with you as a father and a human being. I am not involved with what is currently going on in Nigeria, I don’t talk to any Nigerian other than friends on social basis. I am not involved with any political groups or affiliation. You mentioned Governor Osoba when you spoke to me, yes I was walking down the street of Cambridge, Massachussets a few months ago, when I looked up and saw him reading a map trying to cross the street.
I greeted him warmly and offered to give him a ride to where he was going. This I did not do because I wanted anything from him politically but because that is how I was raised by my mother to treat an adult who I really had no ill-will towards. Some said he was part of the people that manipulated the elections for me to lose in 2011. I don’t have any ill-will to him for that because I think they did me a favour and someone has to win and lose.
I had told you I wasn’t going to run in 2011 but you manipulated me to run; that was my mistake. Losing was a blessing. As usual you wanted me to run for your self-serving purpose to perpetuate your name in the political realm and as the liar that you are, you later denied that it was you who wanted me to run in 2011.
In 2003 I ran because I wanted to and I thought getting to the central government I will be able to contribute more to improving lives and working on legislation that impacts the country. I found that nothing gets done; every public official in Nigeria is working for himself and no one really is serving the public or the country.
The whole system, including the public themselves want oppressors, not people working for their collective progress. When no one is planning the future of a country, such a country can have no future. I won’t be your legacy, let your legacy be Nigeria in the fractured state you created because, it was always your way or the highway.
This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs.

From Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, PhD

DOWNLOAD IYABO’S LETTER >>>

The bitter truth about the Igbo – Femi Fani-Kayode’s fallacious Igbo takedown

According to Femi Fani-Kayode,  the Igbo Major-General J.T,U. Aguiyi-Ironsi  in collusion with an Igbo Acting President Nwafor Orizu and the entire Igbo political leadership took over power. Then he continued, “The Igbo and their Biafra fought Nigeria and killed Nigerians for three hard years in that brutal civil war in which over one million courageous, loyal and faithful sons and daughters of the Federal Republic lost their lives.”

In a desperate bid to resuscitate his shattered political values, unwaged political bigot at the time – 2013,  Femi Fani-Kayode, concocted the most trivial written composition against the Igbos

Permit me to make my second and final contribution to the raging debate about Lagos, who owns it and the seemingly endless tensions that exist between the Igbo and the Yoruba. It is amazing how one or two of the numerous nationalities that make up Nigeria secretly wish that they were Yoruba and consistently lay claim to Lagos as being partly theirs. Have they forgotten where they came from? I have never heard of a Yoruba wanting to give the impression to the world that he is an Igbo, an Ijaw, an Efik or a Hausa-Fulani  or claiming that he is a co-owner of Port Harcourt, Enugu, Calabar, Kano or Kaduna. Yet more often than not, some of those that are not of Yoruba extraction but that have lived in Lagos for some part of their lives have tried to claim that they are bona fide Lagosians and honorary members of the Yoruba race.

In the last 80 years, the Igbo have been shown more generosity, accommodation, warmth and kindness and given more opportunities and leverage by the Yoruba than they have been offered by ANY other ethnic group in Nigeria. This is a historical fact. The Yoruba do not have any resentment for the Igbo and we have allowed them to do in our land and our territory what they have never allowed us to do in theirs.

Clearly it is time for us to answer the nationality question. These matters have to be settled once and for all. Lagos and the South-west are the land and the patrimony of the Yoruba and we will not allow anyone, no matter how fond of them we may be, to take it away from us or share it with us in the name of ”being nice”, ”patriotism”, ”one Nigeria” or anything else. The day that the Yoruba are allowed to lay claim to exactly the same rights and privileges that the indigenous people in non-Yoruba states and zones enjoy and the day they can operate freely and become commissioners and governors in the Niger Delta states, the North, the Middle Belt and the South-east, we may reconsider our position. But up until then, we shall not do so. Lagos is not a ”no-man’s land” but the land and heritage of the Yoruba people. Others should not try to claim what is not theirs.

Teaser-excerpts of FFK’s inflammatory tommyrots  

  • Igbos were first to introduce tribalism into Southern politics in Nigeria
  • The Igbo have been shown more by ANY other ethnic group in Nigeria
  • It is that same attitude of ”we own everything”, that eventually led to the terrible pogroms where almost one hundred thousand of them were killed in just a few days.
  • Igbo has continuously run us down, blame us for all their woes, envy our educational advantages and resent us deeply for our ability to excel in the professions and commerce.
  • Unlike them, we were never traders but we were (and still are) industrialists and they have been trying to catch up with us ever since.
  • 1966 Coup was clearly an Igbo coup
  • The Igbo Major-General J.T,U. Aguiyi-Ironsi  in collusion with an Igbo Acting President Nwafor Orizu and the entire Igbo political leadership took over power.
  • The Igbo and their Biafra fought Nigeria and killed Nigerians for three hard years in that brutal civil war in which over one million courageous, loyal and faithful sons and daughters of the Federal Republic lost their lives

I am not involved in this debate for fun or for political gain and I am not participating in it to play politics but rather to speak the truth, to present the relevant historical facts to those that wish to learn and to educate the uninformed. That is why I write without fear or favour and that is why I intend to be thoroughly candid and brutally frank in this essay. And I am not too concerned or worried about what anyone may think or how they may feel about what I am about to say because I am a servant of truth and the truth must be told no matter how bitter it is and no matter whose ox is gored. That truth is as follows. The Yoruba, more than any other nationality in this country in the last 100 years, have been far too accommodating and tolerant when it comes to their relationship with other nationalities in this country and this is often done to their own detriment. That is why some of our Igbo brothers can make some of the sort of asinine remarks and contributions that a few of them  have been making in this debate both in the print media and in numerous social media portals and networks ever since Governor Fashola ”deported” 19 Igbo destitute back to Anambra state a while ago.  In the last 80 years, the Igbo have been shown more generosity, accommodation, warmth and kindness and given more opportunities and leverage by the Yoruba than they have been offered by ANY other ethnic group in Nigeria. This is a historical fact. The Yoruba do not have any resentment for the Igbo and we have allowed them to do in our land and our territory what they have never allowed us to do in theirs. This has been so for 80 long years and it is something that we are very proud of. As I said elsewhere recently, to be accommodating and generous is a mark of civilisation and it comes easily to people that once had empires. The reason why many of our people take strong exception to the apparent outrage of the Igbo over this ”deportation” issue and the provocative comments of my friend and brother Chief Orji Uzor Kalu when he described Lagos as being a ”no man’s land”  is because the Igbo have not only taken us for granted but they have also taken liberty for licence.

IGBOS were the ones that FIRST introduced tribalism into southern politics in 1945 with the unsavoury comments of Mr. Charles Dadi Onyeama who was a member of the Central Legislative Council representing Enugu and who said at the Igbo State Union address that ”the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the Igbo is only a matter of time”.

We cannot be expected to tolerate or accept that sort of irreverent and unintelligent rubbish simply because we still happen to believe in ”one Nigeria” and we will not sacrifice our rights or prostitute our principles on the alter of that ”one Nigeria”. Whether Nigeria is one or not, what is ours is ours and no one should test our resolve or make any mistake about that. ”One Nigeria” yes but no one should spit in our faces or covet our land, our treasure, our success, our history, our virtues, our being and our heritage and attempt to claim those for themselves simply because we took them in on a rainy day. It is that same attitude of ”we own everything”, ”we must have everything” and ”we must control everything” that the Igbo settlers manifested in the northern region in the late 50’s and early and mid-60’s that got them into so much trouble up there with the Hausa-Fulani and that eventually led to the terrible pogroms where almost one hundred thousand of them were killed in just a few days. Again it is that same attitude that they manifested in Lagos and the Western Region in the late ’30’s and the early and mid-40’s that alienated the Yoruba from them, that led to the establishment of the Action Group in April, 1951 and that resulted in the narrow defeat of Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe in the Western Regional elections of December, 1951. As a matter of fact they were the ones that FIRST introduced tribalism into southern politics in 1945 with the unsavoury comments of Mr. Charles Dadi Onyeama who was a member of the Central Legislative Council representing Enugu and who said at the Igbo State Union address that ”the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the Igbo is only a matter of time”.

It is that same attitude of ”we own everything”, ”we must have everything” and ”we must control everything” that the Igbo settlers manifested in the northern region in the late 50’s and early and mid-60’s that got them into so much trouble up there with the Hausa-Fulani and that eventually led to the terrible pogroms where almost one hundred thousand of them were killed in just a few days.

That single comment, made in that explosive and historic speech, did more damage to southern Nigerian unity than any other in the entire history of our country and everything changed from that moment on. To make matters worse, in July 1948, Chief Nnamdi  Azikiwe made his own openly tribal and incendiary speech, again at the Igbo State Union, in which he spoke about the ”god of the Igbo” eventually giving them the leadership of Nigeria and Africa. These careless and provocative words cost him dearly and put a nail in the coffin of the NCNC in the Western Region from that moment on. This was despite the fact that that same NCNC, which was easily the largest and most powerful political party in Nigeria at the time, had been founded and established by a great and illustrious son of the Yoruba by the name of Herbert Macauley. Macauley, like most of the Yoruba in his day, saw no tribe and he happily handed the leadership of the party over to Azikiwe, an Igbo man, in 1945 when he was on his dying bed. How much more can the Yoruba do than that when it comes to being blind to tribe? Can there be any greater evidence of our total lack of racial prejudice and tribal sentiments than that? If the NCNC had been founded and established by an Igbo man, would he have handed the whole thing over to a Yoruba on his death bed? I doubt it very much.

Yet instead of being grateful the Igbo continuously run us down, blame us for all their woes, envy our educational advantages and resent us deeply for our ability to excel in the professions and commerce. Unlike them, we were never traders but we were (and still are) industrialists and when it comes to the professions we were producing lawyers, doctors, accountants and university graduates at least three generations before they ever did. That is the bitter truth and they have been trying to catch up with us ever since.

Again when northern military officers mutinied, effected their ”revenge coup” and went to kill the Igbo military Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi on July 29th 1966 in the old Western Region, his host, the Yoruba Col. Fajuyi (who was military Governor of the Western Region at the time), insisted that they would have to kill him first before taking Aguiyi-Ironsi’s life and the northern officers (led by Major T.Y. Danjuma as he then was)  promptly obliged him by slaughtering him before killing Aguiyi-Ironsi. How many Igbo know about that and how many times in our history have they made such sacrifices for the Yoruba? Would Aguiyi-Ironsi, or any other Igbo officer, have stood for Fajuyi, or any other Yoruba officer, and sacrificed his life for him in the same way that Fajuyi did had the roles been reversed? I doubt it very much. Yet instead of being grateful the Igbo continuously run us down, blame us for all their woes, envy our educational advantages and resent us deeply for our ability to excel in the professions and commerce. Unlike them, we were never traders but we were (and still are) industrialists and when it comes to the professions we were producing lawyers, doctors, accountants and university graduates at least three generations before they ever did. That is the bitter truth and they have been trying to catch up with us ever since. For example the first Yoruba lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams was called to the English Bar in 1879 whilst the first Igbo lawyer, Sir Louis Mbanefo, was called to the English bar in 1937. Again the first Yoruba medical practitioner, Dr. Nathaniel King, graduated in 1875 from the University of Edinburgh whilst the first Igbo medical practitioner, Dr. Akannu Ibiam, graduated from another Scottish University in 1935.

Yet despite all this and all that they have been through over the years and despite their terrible  experiences in the civil war we are witnessing that same attitude of ”we must control all”, ”we must own all” and ”we must have all” rearing its ugly head again today when it comes to their attitude to the issue of the deportations from Lagos state and when you consider the comments of the Orji Kalu’s of this world about the Igbo supposedly ”owning Lagos” with the Yoruba and supposedly ”generating 55 per cent of the state’s revenue”. It is most insulting.

And I must say that it is wrong and unfair for anyone to lay the blame for the perennial suspicion and underlying tensions that lie between the two nationalities on the Yoruba because that is far from the truth. We are not the problem, they are. Pray tell me, in the whole of Nigeria who treated the Igbo better than the Yoruba after the civil war and who gave them somewhere to run to where they could regain all their ”abandoned property” and feel at home again? Who encouraged them to return to Lagos and the West and who saved the jobs that they held before the civil war for them to come back to when the war ended? No other tribe or nationality did all that for them in the country- only the Yoruba did so. And the people of the old Mid-West and the Eastern minorities (who make up the zone that is collectively known as the ”south-south’ today) have always viewed them with suspicion, have always feared them and have always resented them deeply. From the foregoing, any objective observer can tell that we the Yoruba have always played our part when it comes to accommodating others. This is particularly so when it comes to the Igbo who we have always had a soft spot for and who we have always regarded as brothers and sisters. It is time that those ”others” also play their part by acquiring a little more humility, by knowing and accepting their place in the scheme of things and by desisting from giving the impression that they own our territory or that they made us what we are.

Now, let us look at a few historical facts and one or two more Igbo ”firsts’ that many may not be familiar with to buttress the point. The Igbo people were the FIRST to carry out a failed coup on the night of Jan 15th, 1966 under the leadership of Major Emmanuel Ifejuna, Major Chukuma Kaduna  Nzeogwu, Major Christian Anuforo, Capt. Ben Gbulie, Major Timothy Onwatuegwu, Major Donatus Okafor, Capt. Ude, Capt. Emmanuel Nwobosi, Captain Udeaja, Lt. Okafor, Lt. Okocha, Lt. Anyafulu, Lt. Okaka, Lt. EzedIgbo, Lt. Amunchenwa,  Lt. Nwokedi, 2nd Lt. J.C. Ojukwu, 2nd Lt. Ngwuluka, 2nd Lt. Ejiofor, 2nd Lt. Egbikor, 2nd Lt. Igweze, 2nd Lt. Onyefuru, 2nd Lt. Nwokocha, 2nd Lt. Azubuogu and 2nd Lt. Nweke in which they drew FIRST blood and openly slaughtered and butchered leading politicians and army officers from EVERY single zone in the country except their own.

I should also mention that even though this was clearly an Igbo coup there was one Yoruba officer who was amongst the ringleaders by the name of Major Adewale Ademoyega. It was a very bloody night indeed. Amongst those killed were the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of the Western Region, Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Federal Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Brigadier Zakari Maimalari, Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, Colonel  Ralph Shodeinde, Lt . Colonel  James Yakubu Pam, Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema and numerous others. They did not just kill these revered and respected leaders but in some cases they mocked, tortured and maimed them before doing so, took pictures of their dead and mutilated bodies and killed their wives and children as well. For weeks after these horrific acts were carried out, the Igbo people rejoiced and celebrated them in the streets and markets of the north, openly displaying pictures and posters of the Saurdana’s mutilated body with Nzeogwu’s boot on his neck, loudly playing a famous and deeply offensive anti-northern song in which northerners were compared to goats and listening to it on their radios, jubilating that they had brought an end to what they described as ”northern rule and Islamic domination” and openly boasting that they themselves would now ”rule Nigeria forever”. Though the first  coup failed the matter did not end there.

The very next day after the Jan.15th mutiny and butchery had failed and did not result in Ifejuana taking power in Lagos, the Igbo people set their ”plan B” in motion and they were the FIRST to carry out a successful coup in Nigeria just one day later on Jan. 17th 1966. This was when the Igbo Major-General J.T,U. Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Army and who had inexplicably and suspiciously not been murdered by the young Igbo officers in their violent mutiny and killing spree the night before) in collusion with the Igbo Acting President Nwafor Orizu and the entire Igbo political leadership of that day, invited the remnants of Sir Tafawa Balewa’s cabinet to a closed door meeting, threatened their lives and took power from them at the point of a gun.

The very next day after the Jan.15th mutiny and butchery had failed and did not result in Ifejuana taking power in Lagos, the Igbo people set their ”plan B” in motion and they were the FIRST to carry out a successful coup in Nigeria just one day later on Jan. 17th 1966. This was when the Igbo Major-General J.T,U. Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Army and who had inexplicably and suspiciously not been murdered by the young Igbo officers in their violent mutiny and killing spree the night before) in collusion with the Igbo Acting President Nwafor Orizu and the entire Igbo political leadership of that day, invited the remnants of Sir Tafawa Balewa’s cabinet to a closed door meeting, threatened their lives and took power from them at the point of a gun. Aguiyi-Ironsi did not just ask them to give him power but he took it from them by force by telling them that he could not guarantee their safety if they refused to do so. Meanwhile Orizu point blank refused to do his duty as Acting President and swear in Zana Bukar Dipcharimma as the Acting Prime Minster when the members of the cabinet and the British Ambassador (who was also at the meeting) implored him to do so since by that time there was a power vacuum because the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, had gone missing and had probably been murdered. It was in these very suspicious circumstances and as a consequence of this murky and deep-seated Igbo conspiracy that General Aguiyi-Ironsi came to power. Amongst those that were present at that famous ”meeting” that are still alive today are Alhaji Maitama Sule, Chief Richard Akinjide and President Shehu Shagari who were all Ministers in Balewa’s cabinet . Those that doubt the veracity of my account of this meeting would do well to ask any of them exactly what transpired during that encounter.

Yet the seeming success of the conspiracy was short-lived. Only six months later, on July 29th 1966, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and no less than 300 Igbo army officers reaped the consequences of their actions and plot when they were all slaughtered in just one night during the northern officers revenge coup which was led by Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed,  Major Abba Kyari, Captain Martins Adamu, Major T.Y. Danjuma, Major Musa Usman, Captain Joseph Garba, Captain Shittu Alao, Captain Baba Usman, Captain Gibson S.Jalo and Captain Shehu Musa Yar’adua  as they then were. Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon was put in power by this group after that and a few weeks later between September 29th 1966 and the middle of October of that same year approximately 50,000 Igbo civilians were attacked and slaughtered in a series of horrendous pogroms in the north by violent northern mobs as a reprisal for the killing of the northern leaders, including Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Saurdana of Sokoto, by Major Nzeogwu, Major Ifejuna and other junior Igbo officers on the night of Jan. 15th 1966. Please note that despite the fact that a number of Yoruba leaders were killed on that night as well no Igbo civilians were massacred anywhere in the west by mobs in reprisal killings throughout that period.

The Igbo understandably left the north in droves after those terrible pogroms and fled back to the east from whence they came. And perhaps that would have been the end of the story but for the fact that they also declared secession and sought to dismember Nigeria.  They then made their biggest mistake of all by provoking a full scale military conflict with Nigeria when they launched a vicious and unprovoked attack against the rest of the south attacking and conscripting the eastern minorities , storming  the Mid-West and attempting to enter Yorubaland through Ore to capture it. Thankfully they were stopped in their tracks by the gallant efforts and courageous fighting skills of the Third Marine Commando (which was primarily a Yoruba force and which was under the command of the great Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, ‘the Black Scorpion’), prevented from entering the west, driven out  of the Mid-West, pushed back into the East, defeated in battle after battle and were eventually brought down to their knees and forced to surrender to the Federal forces in Enugu.

The Igbo and their Biafra fought Nigeria and killed Nigerians for three hard years in that brutal civil war in which over one million courageous, loyal and faithful sons and daughters of the Federal Republic lost their lives at the war front trying to stop Biafra from seceding from the federation, from taking our land and from  taking the minority groups of the Mid-Western Region and Eastern Region and our newly-discovered oil with them.

The Igbo and their Biafra fought Nigeria and killed Nigerians for three hard years in that brutal civil war in which over one million courageous, loyal and faithful sons and daughters of the Federal Republic lost their lives at the war front trying to stop Biafra from seceding from the federation, from taking our land and from  taking the minority groups of the Mid-Western Region and Eastern Region and our newly-discovered oil with them. Yet despite our massive casualties and the monumental loss of life that the Federal side suffered (a total of 2 million died on both sides) the Igbo people were welcomed back into Nigeria after the war with open arms. Yet it was only in Yorubaland and especially in Lagos that they were given all their ”abandoned property” back  and welcomed back as brothers and sisters without any reservations or suspicions whatsoever. Everywhere else in the country for many years they were denied, deprived, shunned, attacked, killed, discriminated against and humiliated but never in the southwest or Lagos.  It is the Igbo people more than any other that have complained about marginalisation in Nigeria, forgetting that there is no other country in the world in which there was a major civil war and yet only 10 years after that war ended the losing side produced the Vice President for the whole country in a democratic election in 1979 in the distinguished person of Vice President Alex Ekwueme.

Some have described my submissions in this debate as being ”inflammatory” and have claimed that I am ”not a true progressive” for making them. I reject these labels and I wonder whether those people that conjured them up described the comments of my dear friend and brother Chief Orji Kalu as “inflammatory” and whether they labelled him as ”not being a true progressive” when he erroneously claimed that the Igbo generated 55 per cent of the revenue and owned 55 per cent of businesses in Lagos and that they are effectively the owners of the state. Unlike most of those that are attempting to label me and brand me as a tribalist I know the history of Lagos and the Yoruba very well.

We will not let anyone poison the minds of our Yoruba youth or dispossess them of their heritage by keeping silent when we witness the irresponsible and dishonest propagation of the most desperate and despicable form of historical revisionism that some Igbo leaders are suddenly churning out. If anyone thinks that they can intimidate us into keeping quite when their leaders say such things then they will have the biggest shocker of their lives. We shall not be silenced and they shall not pass. Lagos and the Yoruba generally have much stronger historical, cultural and trading ties with the Bini, the Itsekiri, the Urhobo, the Isoko, the Hausa-Fulani, the Tapas, the Nupes and the Ijaws than they do with the Igbo. The input of those other major ethnic groups to the development of Lagos and their stake in her is far greater than that of the Igbo. Whether anyone wishes to accept it or not that is the bitter truth. We will not let anyone distort history and we will not keep silent when we hear the irresponsible and disrespectful effusions of those that seek to substitute truth with falsehood. When it comes to Lagos it is time that everyone respected themselves and knew their place. The Igbo particularly should display a much higher degree of respect and gratitude to those who were gracious enough to accept them in their land as equals when things were very difficult for them and who treated them with love, respect and kindness after the civil war when hardly anyone else was prepared to do so.

We the Yoruba have accommodated others in Lagos and throughout the South-west and we have let them live in peace for the last 100 years. As a matter of fact we have been glad to do so because as far as we are concerned that is one of the hallmarks of civilisation- the ability to accommodate other faiths, other cultures, other races and other nationalities and to create an equitable and just racial melting pot where equal opportunities are available to all. It is a great and noble virtue to be open and tolerant but that does not mean that we are fools and it does not mean that we do not know who we are, where we are coming from, what is ours and what our heritage is.

The Igbo are the least close, the most distant and the least familiar with our customs and our ways. They ought to be the last to be claiming our heritage and coveting our land and neither can they claim to have made any real input to our glaring success. For them to think otherwise is nothing but delusion.

The fact that we have allowed others to thrive and settle in our land and share it with us does not mean that we have stopped owning that land. The suggestion that Lagos is a ”no-man’s land’ and that the Igbo or any other nationality outside the Yoruba generate up to 55 per cent of it’s revenue or business is absolutely absurd and frankly it has no basis in reality or rationality. It is not only a dirty lie but it is also very insulting. Guests, no matter how welcome, esteemed, cherished and valued they are, cannot become the owners of the house no matter how comfortable they are made to feel within it. Those guests will always be guests. Lagos belongs to the Yoruba and to the Yoruba alone. ALL others that reside there are guests, though some guests are far closer to us than others. The Igbo are the least close, the most distant and the least familiar with our customs and our ways. They ought to be the last to be claiming our heritage and coveting our land and neither can they claim to have made any real input to our glaring success. For them to think otherwise is nothing but delusion.

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